Triggering Your Brain's Autopilot For Success Part 1

You want it, you know you're capable of it and still, you don't do what it takes? Why? It's perfectly normal and happens to all of us! When you understand why and how the more powerful habitual part of our brain works, it becomes easy to see how to use it to your advantage.

This is part 1 of a 3-part series on How to Trigger Your Brains Autopilot For Success. Be sure to check out the other 2 episodes  (32 & 33).

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Why is it that we can have such a clear goal, something that we want so clearly and so dearly. And we know we're totally capable of achieving, and yet still somehow managed not to take the tiny little action steps that lead us towards that goal? Well, it's not you, there's nothing wrong with you, it absolutely happens to all of us. And when you pull back the curtain and get a little bit better of an understanding about what's going on in our brains, that makes us happen, then it's no longer a mystery. And it's no longer a struggle. And it's not like some big secret, you just say, oh, okay, I see how this works. And I see what steps I can take to change it, so that I can actually achieve my goals on autopilot, so that I can subconsciously and automatically become unstoppable and continue always to move towards my goal. So let's take a very top level, look at how our brain is working. We've got our prefrontal cortex, the one that deals with awareness, the one that says, absolutely, I want to achieve this goal. Absolutely. I know that I'm absolutely capable of achieving this goal. And then we've got the ofc, the orbital frontal cortex, and other parts of our minds, but we're just going to keep it simple with the ofc here. That is our habitual mind that says, Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure. Tomorrow, tomorrow. But today, let's just rest Hey, and you know what, let's treat ourselves to some pizza, right. And so while your prefrontal cortex your awareness is fully aware that you're capable of achieving a goal that you want to achieve a goal, your habitual mind, your ofc, is much stronger, it works on autopilot. And it is going to keep you basically trapped in whatever your previous habitual patterns have been around that goal. Trap. That is until you understand, there's some really easy things you can do to override this and actually get the ofc to have the same agenda, as you're aware as your awareness or your conscious mind. And so that's exactly what we're going to do this week, three Crazy, Stupid, simple hacks, that you can start layering on top of each other, so that your habitual mind has the same agenda as your conscious mind. And therefore puts all of that habitual power to work for you to achieve your goal on autopilot. So in your conscious awareness, you have this new and exciting goal, maybe it's a little one like to be able to parallel park, right, maybe it's a big one to achieve something in your business that is going to feel really good is really exciting and a great way to grow. And then you've got your habitual mind, which is very helpful, because for example, once you learn to parallel park, you're going to do that automatically, you're not going to have to stop and think about it. Once you learn to do the thing that propels your business to the next level, you're going to do it automatically, you're not going to have to stop and think about it and put all of that conscious effort into it. Right. So the habitual mind is working from programming. And what we want to start doing then is reprogramming it. So it's literally speaking the same language has the same agenda as our conscious goal. And how did your habitual mind get that programming? From repeatedly being exposed to the same behaviors, choices and payoffs or rewards related to those behaviors and choices? Really, simply put, I would just call it programming, right? We're going to reprogram it. And the way that you do that very simply is by consistently taking small but consistent new actions that are new votes for the new behavior, the new choice, right? Surely, you've heard the phrase, if you do the same thing you've always done, you're gonna get the results you've always gotten. And this is a really great example of why and how that happens. So we're just going to consistently make little choices that vote for the new result and the new habit. And James clear, I love the way he talks about this in his book, atomic habits, in terms of votes, right. And every vote counts, and it doesn't have to be a unanimous vote. So when you can just stop and think about what your goal is and make little votes with your actions, your behaviors, your choices, that vote for the new habit, it doesn't have to be a unanimous vote, you don't have to beat yourself up when you aren't making or casting the vote right in favor of your new preferred goal or outcome. But just consistently, look at the little choices that you make, and realize that they are all boats which are stacking up to change that programming to get your habitual mind to start working automatically in your favor. Important to note here is that this isn't about theory and learning. This is literally about taking action, right? So every action is about and let's look at three examples. Let's say number one, you are looking to get healthier, lose weight be more vital, right? Everything you do is about your current state is the lag result of all the votes that you've passed for say The last year right? So you just have a smaller portion and you think, yeah, voting for this new programming, or you make a healthier food choice, this is a vote for the programming. This is why I always say, pebbles on the pile, it really does add up every little vote counts. You go to the gym, even if you only go for 20 minutes, hey, I voted for this, right. And I'm going to go again tomorrow, or I'm going to go out and take a walk. Instead of sitting on the couch tonight, marching TV, these are all votes for your subconscious programming. It doesn't have to be unanimous, and every vote counts. In a relationship. If you have a relationship goal, and you want to change the quality of your relationships, start making little votes in that direction, cast your votes. Maybe one day you stop and talk things out. Instead of walking away in a huff. That is a very important vote, and speaks to what we're going to talk about Wednesday, which is engaging your emotions. Let's look at a business example. My podcast is a perfect example. I have had weeks where I will record the three different episodes on different days. And it's not as high quality, it's more scattered, it's less consistent. I am voting against myself as a podcaster. And this speaks to what we're going to cover on Friday, which is identity collateral. But when I sit down and I say no matter what I'm going to research, outline, record, edit and schedule all three podcasts today, because I'm a podcaster. And this vote is very powerful to my subconscious. So I eventually get to the point where I'm like, Oh, yeah, and it actually becomes easier, and takes less time. And that's all because I simply consistently cast these votes in the direction of changing this habit and engaging my habitual mind to do this for me. So choosable cast those votes. reprogram your habitual mind with those votes, it doesn't have to be unanimous pebbles on pile, and in our next episode, we're going to talk about how to engage our emotions in this process. And then in the third part, how to stack our identity collateral in our favor to achieve this too.